In ‘Day of the Soldado,’ an equally bleak ‘Sicario’

There’s an oppressive bleakness to the brutal actionthriller “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.” But with faces like Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro, what are you going to do?

Amid the dust cloud of violence that settles over the “Sicario” sequel, nothing stands out like the furrowed brow of Brolin’s grimace or the cold, worn-out stare of del Toro. They look like gunslingers from an Anthony Mann or Sam Peckinpah western, just with heavier ammo and dark sunglasses. With such sunken, worldweary eyes, in the heyday of film noir del Toro and Brolin would have made a killing.

They do plenty of that, too, in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.” Matt Graver (Brolin) and his cartel “Sicario: Day of Soldado,” a Sony Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “strong violence, bloody images, and language.” Running time: 123 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four. MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. lawyer turned undercover pal Alejandro Gillick (del Toro) are again called into action in a black-ops operation along the Mexico border, this time without the benefit of Emily Blunt, who starred in Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” (2015).

Blunt played a less experienced FBI agent with the naivety to be horrified by things that Graver and Gillick wouldn’t bat an eye at — you know, sissy stuff like dozens of decaying corpses stuffed like insulation into a Mexican cartel safe house. No, Graver and just-as-grave Gillick have seen it all. And Blunt’s absence leaves “Day of Soldado” without the mounting sense of dread that defined the first one.

It also lacks the muscular camera work of Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins. With such missing talent, it would be easy to view “Day of the Soldado” as a cheaper knockoff. Easier, still, considering the movie’s poster — of a gun-toting skeleton draped in a flag — most resembles a Guns N’ Roses album cover.

It’s better than that, but not by much. Stefano Sollima (“Gomorrah”) steps in to direct a script

RICHARD FOREMAN, JR. — SONY PICTURES VIA AP This image released by Sony Pictures shows Josh Brolin, from left, Jeffrey Donovan and Benicio Del Toro in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.”